Broken bridges
by Izumi1909
Summary: [AU] The crew gets hired to guard a rich young skald with dreams of seeing the Silent World despite not being immune. On the first day, they end up thrawating an assassination attempt on the young man, which turns out to have been the expedition's true purpose all along. The bridge to the Known World breaking strands them in the Silent World for the winter, until help can come.
1. Chapter 1

**Note:** Here is the second fanfic I initially published on the forum. It's a what I call a "canon-hugging alternate universe" so it's much longer than "Worst case scenario" and not finished yet.

 **Chapter 1**

That radio call explained everything. And it was not good news. Torbjörn, along with Trond and Taru, had insisted the boy was not ready, but his father had had none of it. For his twentieth birthday, he got his dream of visiting the Silent World, despite not being immune. His father had promised that he would be well-guarded, but even that promise had not been kept. Finding out who exactly their employer had hired to "guard" the boy had made them realize why he had been suddenly curious each time one of them had mentioned having a friend or relative in the military, when he usually couldn't care less about what was going on in his employee's lives as long as it didn't keep them from doing their job. Torbjörn's own nephew, who had dropped out of academia to become a cleanser less than two years ago. A couple of Taru's distant cousins, one of whom had a suspicious skill overlap with the boy, down to the lack of immunity. The second distant cousin wasn't much better: if it weren't for the presence of the first one, he would have been unable to function with the rest of the crew according to Taru. Trond's acquaintances were better in those regards, but still substandard: a man that was hardly a real doctor whose real gift lied in getting fired and the command of the crew given to a troll hunter with a limited notion of long-term planning. Long term planning was never intended to be needed on this expedition. The only person none of them knew was the day scout, that could have been the person they hated the most in the whole world if it weren't for the fact she was now inside a troll's stomach, unfortunately along with the Grade A cat assigned to the crew. If it weren't for both their employer and the day scout underestimating the rest of the crew, the boy would have been that troll's dinner instead.  
-How is he?  
Torbjörn had accepted to move away from Sweden to get this job in Iceland because of the money, but had come to care for the boy as much as for his own children back home. They boy's Norwegian teacher and the woman hired to train him for the day-to-day aspects of the expedition had a similar affection for him.  
-He didn't get exposed, but he's in shock after what happened. Mikkel put him in the dormitory and told us to keep an eye on him.  
Taru's cousin Tuuri sounded on the verge of tears again. The previous was when they had all realized that her presence in the crew was going to be used as an excuse to order everyone to continue the research, despite the "setback" of losing their employer's youngest son on the first day. This greatly increased the possibility that anyone who may have noticed something suspicious about the boy's death would end up dead themselves, by troll or by day scout. Sigrun's voice intervened:  
-Sorry to interrupt your chit-chat, but we have a more pressing issue. What do we do now? I don't like the idea of going back to that boring Danish military base, and it's not only because the bridge broke.  
Torbjörn had to make sure he had heard correctly:  
-Why are you asking us? I'd like to remind you that you reached this radio completely by chance, and that I just happened to be next to it because I had just been talking to my wife.  
-Who else should I ask? I'm definitely not asking the actual boss anything anymore.  
Torbjörn turned in the direction of Trond and Taru, who seemed both in deep thought. Trond was the first to emerge from it, before grabbing the radio's microphone:  
-Listen. I have enough connections here to send you a ship with quarantine facilities that will take you somewhere safe. But I'll get nobody to come get you right now. You'll have to wait until right before spring to be picked up. The most convenient place to pick you up from will most likely be very far away from your current location, so you might as well use that time to reach it. Tell me, how much supplies were you given? Supplying you as if he expected at least one of you to die early into the expedition would have raised a few red flags.  
Tuuri answered:  
-Reynir's father made him check himself to test his knowledge. Mikkel checked also, in case he had been deliberately taught to misevaluate things. Mikkel say we're good, but may need to do a little hunting and scavenging from time to time. The fact that we don't need to feed Helena nor the cat anymore helps also.  
"Helena" had been the day scout. Taru emerged from her own thoughts:  
-If you're going to have a long trip in the Silent World anyway, would you mind taking a few photos of your campsites? That alone would be precious data for some people. That will keep that extremely expensive assassination plot from becoming a complete waste.  
Tuuri translated Taru's Icelandic for Sigrun, who was the next to speak:  
-I like you guys already! We can totally do that! Will keep everyone from thinking of the old boss wanting all of us dead too much.  
-"The old boss"? asked Torbjörn, intrigued.  
-You three are the new bosses now. If anyone asks, the radio broke in such a way that we can only reach you guys and can't contact the boring Danish base. I don't care if it's not actually possible, I think no one will once they find out what this mission was originally supposed to be and that we're the good guys in that story.  
The more they thought of it, the more they realized they were in no position to refuse.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Even with all the generosity he could muster, he found himself unable to read Helena's actions as anything other than trying to get him eaten by a troll. He realized that if he was thinking this, he was probably still alive. He was lying in a bed that, while warm, wasn't the most comfortable he had known. People were talking. He opened his eyes turned in the direction the voices were coming from. It took him a while to realize that his field of vision as being blocked by someone sitting right next to his bed:  
-Hey, you've stopped shivering. Mikkel, he seems be getting better!  
He recognized the voice. Torbjörn's nephew Emil, who had tried to befriend him on the basis that they were "from the same world, unlike all these other guys". Having been rich up until just a few years ago had apparently made him assume that he and Reynir had more in common than they turned out to actually have. Emil had fortunately been the first to realize this, and had redirected his attempts at making friends towards Lalli of all people. Reynir had felt bad for Lalli, as he very obviously preferred being left alone, but lacked the possibility of actually telling so to Emil. Tuuri didn't help much, as she seemed to have decided that the expedition was going to be Lalli's opportunity to "learn about being around other people". After Sigrun's scary troll hunting story and Mikkel's really strange joke, he had happily accepted Helena's offer to let him tag along for day scouting, which was supposed to be much safer than the night variant, especially with the cat accompanying them.

Emil stood up as heavy footsteps came closer and much larger body came to sit by his side:  
-How are you feeling? Can you get up?  
Reynir managed to sit on his bed without much trouble, in such a way that he was now facing Mikkel:  
-What happened? Why did Helena...  
-I need to tell you a few things that will be very hard to hear. Are you ready for them now or would you like a little more time to recollect yourself beforehand? Maybe something hot to drink or something to eat?  
He accepted the drink, and listened. They'd found multiple pieces of evidence suggesting that his father wanted him dead, and Reynir's dream to see the Silent World had been very convenient to him in that regard. Helena had been hired as a more active part of the plan, everyone else had been hired to create a smokescreen over the expedition's real purpose and be killed if necessary. The entire first week of his pill box contained something that Lalli had simply called "poison" in Finnish before dropping it all on the floor and crushing it with his foot. A disturbing thought suddenly crossed Reynir's mind:  
-What if there is someone else here trying to kill me? Helena was being quite nice until right before the troll. It could be even be you.  
-You have a good point. Okay, let's imagine every single one of us actually does plan to kill you when you least expect it. What do you do? Grab a mask, a few warm clothes and some food, and leave? You'll just get yourself killed by what's outside instead. Helena may have deserved her fate, but her death and that of the cat mean that we are down to one scout, which is not good. Helena wouldn't have been able to survive very long on her own either. Everything indicates that she would have waited until the expedition was almost over to take care of most of us if we were still alive by then. I'm afraid you have no choice but to trust us all to not secretly be killers. Still, considering this possibility at all shows that you are smart. That means it will be easy to keep you safe.  
Mikkel let him process the information before talking again:  
-If it can reassure you, everyone here is clean as far as I'm concerned. Lalli pretty much saved your life, and I have a few reasons to think that duplicity such as Helena's is just plain impossible for him. This gets Tuuri of the hook as well, as it's hard to see how he could have been able to keep him out of the way if she was preparing such a thing. She was on the verge of tears when she found out what Helena had done. Emil is... "far too easy to read" is the nicest way I can put his case. Sigrun comes from a place where far too many able bodies are culled out by trolls every year. While I don't put it past them to have a few hunting "accidents" with truly troublesome members of the community, I had to explain her your situation three times before she got even a vague idea of why you would be considered troublesome. As for myself, all I can promise is that while not a doctor, I have enough ethics in common to not want to harm people.  
Reynir's mind only vaguely registered the last sentence, as he thought over his situation. Árni Ragnarsson, one of the major funders of the Dagrenning genetics program, had opinions that stopped just short of stating that non-immune people should just plain stop reproducing naturally. Not being immune himself, he had used the program to have four immune children with his wife. Then Reynir happened, to his greatest embarrassment. Another strong belief that he had held was that nobody should ever try going into the Silent world for any other purpose than expanding already existing safe areas. Despite this, he had spent lavishly on Reynir, always getting him whatever he wanted, including good tutors in the subjects he wanted to study. He was being taught Norwegian by a retired general of the country's army. He'd gotten a skald all the way from Sweden to teach him the job's skills and a former military strategist to prepare him for the expedition. But now, he realized that he had just narrowly escaped being used to prove his father's point.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

That "safe house" could have almost been passed off as a surprise hotel stay to the children if it weren't for two important details. One was that it wasn't far away enough from Mora to justify not sleeping at home for the next few months. The other was that while they had a whole suite at their disposal, she and the children had to share it with the people whose idea it had been to bring them here in the first place. Siv still wasn't sure whether these people were actually keeping them safe or had used that story as an extremely subtle version of the very kidnapping they claimed she and the children risked if they stayed home. Since she had the liberty to go where she wanted in the suite provided she didn't leave, she decided that the best place to be was the radio room. Unfortunately, the two dark-haired siblings, for a good reason, had refused to have any of the children in there. The children had been taken in the other room by that Finnish man named Onni. While he claimed to be present for the same reason as the two dark-haired siblings, he seemed to be a glorified errand boy, and now babysitter, in practice. There were at least ten other people in the house, all under the employ of the dark-haired siblings, who, even if they weren't who the claimed to be, were definitely actual siblings. From what Siv had figured, this was the "important people suite". Onni had been allowed to stay in it, but insisted on earning his keep even if the dark-haired siblings said he didn't have to. This, combined with the fact that the person they would have otherwise used as an errand-boy could be used elsewhere resulted in Onni running around the suite doing most of the grunt work, to the point that Siv had started feeling slightly guilty about waiting around while the dark-haired siblings were trying to reach their contact.

A young female voice finally answered the radio in Icelandic:  
-Uh... may I ask who's calling?  
-Are you the Silent World expedition, by any chance? asked the man among the dark-haired siblings.  
-I still need you to state your name.  
-Fine. I'm Bjarni Árnason, Reynir's older brother. I have one simple message for you. Whatever you do, do not leave him alone with this Helena woman.  
-Ah, that? We already know about Helena. My cousin saved Reynir, but the troll she intended to have kill Reynir killed her instead. We also figured out that your father... wait, you're the brother who didn't come to see him off. Why are you calling?  
-Because one of our father's back-up plans was to use your family members as leverage to force you into obeying his orders if Helena couldn't take care of things on her own. My sister Hildur and I have been busy making sure all potential hostages were safe.  
-Oh dear, Onni!  
-You must be Tuuri. The servants we were sending to Keuruu to secure him ran into a mess of tears trying to get to Øresund base claiming that that his little sister and cousin had run away from home as they were about to take the boat to Finland. Fortunately, we made sure to hire people with brains. While I'm thinking of it, tell your colleague Emil that his aunt and cousins are with us as well. His aunt is currently being cautious about us, so we've been letting her see what we've been up to. Your brother's watching the kids in the other room. Want to talk to him?

After the Finnish siblings exchanged a few words in their own language, Emil confirmed the story that the dark-haired siblings had told Siv, even though he hadn't seen much of what had happened first-hand. Bjarni and Hildur next talked to the expedition's Norwegian captain, who pointed out that having everyone's family members secured meant that Hildur and Bjarni themselves were now in a position to use them as hostages if needed. She didn't like the idea, and asked for a few proofs of good faith before she decided to trust them. That Sigrun woman knew enough about that family to know that these two were supposed to have two older siblings, and asked what they were up to. The older siblings had apparently gone to see young Reynir off along with their parents, not realizing what was going on. Hildur had apparently been the first to figure out something was up, but Bjarni had been the only one she'd been able to convince before things reached a point where time was best used in setting up a counter-plan with the resources available to her rather than in gathering allies. Speaking of allies, it turned out that the now technically rogue expedition had made a few allies back in the family main residence in Iceland: Torbjörn and a couple of Reynir's other private tutors, who both happened to be childless only children. They eventually got the captain to trust them, at least for the time being:  
-One last thing. Part of our cover in case your old man asks is that the radio broke in such a way that it can only reach the guys back in Iceland. Mora is a little too close to the place we're pretending to be unable to reach. Can you stick to mage-to-mage contact?  
-That we can, answered Hildur.  
-Fine. Ours sleeps during the day, so I hope your mage likes daytime naps.  
What were they talking about? Hildur spoke again:  
-This will be a problem neither for Onni nor for myself. Ah, this reminds me. Those pills, even those that were not laced with poison. Do not give them to Reynir.  
-Why? They are supposed to be for bad dreams, and with what the kid just went through...  
-He was not given these for nightmares. A treatment that is often given for nightmares happens to also block another kind of dream, which just happens to be easily mistakable for a nightmare the first time. Let's just say that the gods have tried to warn him a little more directly in the past.  
Sigrun remained silent for a noticeable amount of time, as if that last sentence carried a very heavy meaning. She eventually answered:  
-You're the one with the fancy education, you tell me how I'm supposed to explain this to a Danish medic.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Hildur broke the silence of the dream-sea on which she and Onni were travelling:  
-I was just thinking. If you're following me anyway, you might as well meet Reynir. This way, you can check on him when you go visit your cousin and you'll know his face if he happens to need help while I'm unavailable.  
-I'm not following you, I just happen to be going to the same place as you and unable to conjure my own means of crossing the water wherever you've walked recently.  
-Which forces you to literally be on my trail. Most people call this "following".  
-Mhh...  
A couple of safe areas came to her sight. They were much further away than she would have wanted, but not as far as she had feared. Close enough that Reynir had relatively little chance to run into something dangerous if he left his area's safety to visit her. She came to tears when she saw that sheep-filled meadow she knew all too well. She'd once read an Old World story about a man who fell in love with a woman whose memory never lasted more than a day, making her wake up every morning with no idea who she was. The man's dedication to her despite this was supposed to be one of the romantic aspects of the story. Every single night for the last seven years had given her a good idea of what the real thing, rather than the version that made a story people would want to read, had to be like. Hildur and Reynir's fylgja had been helping each other cope with this over the years. The first few weeks hadn't been so bad, as Reynir was always happy to "discover" his safe area and the novelty of it kept his attention enough that he never got around thinking of anything to do "next" time. The first time he did end up making a plan, she had to explain the situation to him. He'd come up with an idea: have her explain him what was going on the next night and tell him what he was planning to do. She'd tried the next night, but he had been too wrapped in the place's "novelty" to listen. Things like that kept happening. Little by little, she'd stopped being cooperative and reduced her role to making sure he didn't wander out of his safe area. She'd stopped explaining things he would never get to enjoy anyway. Eventually, she had ready-organized "first-timer's" tour for him that lasted the night and caught his attention at the right moments in such a way that he never considered going outside of his safe area or what to do next time. But this time was going to be different. This time, he was going to remember.

As she went into the area and brought Onni into it, she saw that she wasn't the only one in a celebratory mood. Reynir's dog fylgja was overpowering him and licking his face like it hadn't done in years.  
-Uh... You weren't exaggerating when you said he looked different.  
Despite what she had told him, Onni was probably still half-expecting a younger version of Bjarni with red hair. They both walked to the center of the meadow. The fylgja moved away, and Reynir just barely had time to sit and notice her presence before Hildur gave him a big hug:  
-I'm so happy you're not taking these forsaken pills anymore! I could have wished for better circumstances leading to this, though.  
-What do the pills have to do with this? Mikkel just told me that you told him what they actually were, and that the stuff had possible side effects that weren't desirable in our current conditions.  
Hildur had convinced the Danish medic that the pills were a different product. While that product was used to treat night terrors as well, the side effects were different from those of the medicine actually in the pill box, and something that didn't matter much in Reynir's usual life conditions, but was best avoided in an expedition literally in the middle of nowhere. She gave him the real explanation, making it the third time she'd given it in the last twenty-four hours. He had the reaction anyone would have had:  
-Why...  
-You, of all people, getting chosen by the gods goes against every one of father's beliefs. I made complete sense to him, but not you. I think he decided that the gods must have made a mistake at some point, and that he was fixing it in their stead by getting these pills prescribed to you.  
He finally noticed she hadn't come alone:  
-Who is that?  
-I'm Onni, Tuuri's older brother and Lalli's cousin. Your sister thought you should know my face.  
-I think I already saw you before. Tuuri put a picture with you on it on the desk. She and Lalli are doing well, by the way. I'll tell them I saw you when I wake up.  
-Thank you very much.

With the introduction finished, Onni went to the edge of the protected area, and realized that he could leave it without Hildur's help. Given Reynir's current strength, the place was supposed to have at least basic defenses. It was only a few paces to Lalli's from where he was, so he decided to visit it, even if he was unlikely to be there. He quickly discovered that the defenses had gotten better, if still much weaker than his own. He heard Hildur's voice coming from behind him:  
-There you are. I'm heading back, he'll be fine on his own for the rest of the night. So, this is your cousin's space. Nice trees.  
She reached toward the place's border, and her hand went right through it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Reynir and Tuuri has decided to split tasks when it came to copying the book found the previous day in what had seemed to be a doctor's office in a communal area turned hospital. Tuuri was going to re-type the text, Reynir was to reproduce any photos and drawings he found. After spending most of the day re-drawing a series of photos showing the progression of the Rash on a patient, he opened the book to the next page that had been marked as having a picture of some kind during a quick comb-through. It seemed to be a flyer with some kind of syringe on it. This was going to be much, much easier than that scary series of photos. The text on the flyer said something about the syringes getting distributed to all treatment centers as soon as possible. He wondered what was supposed to be in them. The radio buzzed. He was quite sure there was no communication planned. Pretending the radio was damaged was fine with everyone, having it damaged for real was not. This meant there was a small chance that Øresund base, and his father, could manage to contact them. Because of this, Tuuri was the one to answer the radio. It turned out to be indeed someone from Øresund base, who claimed to have been trying to reach the expedition for two days. Reynir considered leaving, but his legs felt too weak to support him. What was happening to him? Just yesterday, he had visited that Old World building that was technically sturdy enough to have a troll nest. All through the investigation, Emil had kept saying he was quite sure the rune that Hildur had taught Reynir to draw actually did nothing, and that the building was actually just devoid of trolls.

Tuuri sounded incredibly believable, telling the operator that the radio was broken and that an "accident" had happened with Helena and the cat. Wait, why was she making it sound like Helena had gotten eaten by the troll to save him, while Lalli had arrived later? If she was able to twist words that way, how could he be sure she wasn't doing the exact same thing with him? Or Lalli, for that matter?  
-I suppose Reynir's parents would like to speak with him after such a thing happened. Could please fetch them for me?  
What was she doing? He wouldn't mind talking to his mother actually, but his father...  
A familiar masculine voice came out of the radio:  
-Reynir? Are you alright?  
Reynir moved his chair closer to the radio and picked up the microphone:  
-Ye... Yes...  
He might as well go along with Tuuri's story:  
-Sor... Sorry... What... what happened to Helena... I didn't know her long, but she seemed...  
How could it be so hard to say that last word? She really had seemed nice. He heard his mother's voice:  
-I'm happy to hear your voice. But now, you know just how dangerous the Silent World is. Please come back while you are still close to the bridge.  
-We... can't.  
Fortunately, Tuuri took over:  
-Part of the bridge broke while we were driving on it. Actually, we just barely avoided sinking with it.  
When his father's voice next came out of the radio, he sounded furious:  
-How did this happen?  
Tuuri started answering:  
-Well, that bridge is more than ninety years old and the knowledge of how it was built in the first place...  
-And Helena failed on top of this.  
Reynir just barely heard his mother asking his father what he was talking about over his disbelief that if all this story was true, all it took for him to confess was being told that the plan had failed.  
-You're Tuuri Hotakainen, right? Listen to me, young lady. If you want to see your brother alive again, you will immediately order that cousin of yours to...  
They heard a new voice coming from the radio:  
-Please step back, ma'am.  
Another new voice:  
-Árni Ragnarsson, you are under arrest for attempted murder by proxy.  
-You can't do this to me! Do you know who I am?  
-Yes, we do.  
That last voice was Ólafur's. Guðrún's came next, sounding much closer to the radio:  
-Reynir, we are so sorry! Hildur tried to tell us, but we didn't believe her. And when you didn't call back, we thought the worst had happened.  
After this, Tuuri felt comfortable telling the real story from their point of view, without twisting any words. That included the fact that they were now reporting to three of Reynir's private tutors.  
-Continue reporting to them, in that case. We are going to have plenty to do to clean up this mess as it is, and home is probably one of the safest places for anyone helping you right now. I also understand why you would want to do some that research if you're equipped for it and will need to keep yourselves busy anyway. But please do your best to stay alive, all of you.

When Reynir went to tell Hildur the news, he found her afe area unoccupied and inaccessible, while it was the complete opposite for the one belonging to Onni. After taking the message he had for Hildur, he explained that he and Hildur had figured out that Icelandic and Finnish mages could ignore each other's protections, but not those of mages from the same tradition.  
-Do you know if Hildur is going to go to bed soon?  
-I think she will.  
-Do you mind if I stay here until she appears in her space?  
-Not at all. Besides, she'll probably kill me if I make you wait outside.  
Reynir looked around the place. While he knew what Lalli's space looked like from being able to see it, this was the first time he was actually in another mage's space.  
-This is different from Lalli's space. More water, less trees. Tuuri told me the three of you basically grew up as siblings, so I thought your space would look like his.  
-He's known the forest longer than this place, by now. It's still the other way around for me.  
-Oh, is it Saimaa? The place Tuuri told me you lived before going to Keuruu?  
Onni suddenly made a face that gave Reynir the impression he had somehow just told him something that made him feel uncomfortable. After that, both of them stayed silent until Reynir saw Hildur appear in her own area and went to join her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

-Don't worry, I'll take a bunch of photos. You won't miss not being there at all.  
Tuuri ran off, Sigrun and Emil at her side. Reynir was really looking forward to visiting that Old World school. Why did he have to wake up with a fever this morning? He felt Mikkel's massive hand on his shoulder:  
-You, back to bed.  
-Won't I make Lalli sick?  
-You have nothing contagious, from what I can tell. And you need the rest.  
As Mikkel wrapped him in blanket, Reynir realized something: this was going to be the first time he and Lalli were going to be asleep at the same time. Hildur had told him about a certain property the safe areas had on language the previous night.

Unfortunately, Lalli had not liked getting a visit from him at all. The only words Reynir had heard from the man who had saved him from Helena were "get out". In a hurry to comply with Lalli's wishes and escape that giant tree that had grown in his area, Reynir had somehow taken a wrong turn and stumbled into Onni's space instead of his own. He got two surprises in a row: Onni being there and Lalli turning out to have followed him for some reason. Reynir saw what Onni had been talking about the previous night when he seemed to have to do some kind of effort to let Lalli inside, while Reynir had been able to simply walk in both his space and Lalli's. The two cousins had apparently not been able to talk since Lalli had left their home, so Reynir decided to let them chat and stay out of the way. He however couldn't figure out a place in Onni's space that was both accessible and out of hearing range. This caused him to hear things that they probably didn't want him to hear. This included Onni considering it a good thing they were now able to communicate by radio because something that he simply called "it" was looking for them "again". Lalli seemed to understand what he was talking about. After some silence, Onni asked Lalli if he had made any friends yet. Lalli replied that he thought he had maybe made one. Reynir wondered who that could be. It definitely wasn't Reynir himself, as his initial visit to Lalli' space had been his first real move to acquaint himself with him. Tuuri was his cousin, Sigrun didn't interact much with him outside of work and Mikkel knew enough about whatever was making his mind "different" to know that human interactions that he could consider "useless" were to be kept to a minimum. That left only one person. He couldn't be talking about Emil, could he? Unfortunately, Onni did not seem in the mood to ask him more, or at least had not gotten around doing so before Reynir woke up.

-Don't go getting attached. It may still die during the night.  
The kitten was being kept as warm as possible in a padded basket while its mother and siblings were being buried outside by Sigrun and Emil. The latter had been the most shaken by them being dead, while Tuuri and Sigrun had had the general attitude of someone who had seen this happen enough times to be hardened to it, but remembered how hard the first few times had been. Strangely enough, the third person out there with them was Lalli, and not Tuuri. When Reynir had asked her the reason for that, her guess had been that Lalli could tell that Emil was sad and wanted to be with him. Had Emil really made friends with Lalli? Come to think of it, it wasn't that strange. It had been Emil's idea to bring the cats back. And Reynir couldn't help notice that when he talked to Lalli, Emil's habits of trying to make himself look good, sometimes by insulting others without really noticing it, almost vanished. Reynir had found out from Tuuri that Emil had tried to befriend her on the way to Øresund base, and during that had played up his past as an academic. Reynir had a strange thought: maybe that Lalli's utter lack of anything obvious in common with Emil had left the latter with no other way to approach him than the most basic and simple gestures of kindness. Lalli tended to take things at face value according to Tuuri. He remembered Tuuri's anecdotes of Emil getting more sandwiches when Lalli stole the meat from Emil's, Emil re-arranging Lalli's hair after the decontamination in Mora and telling his cousins to stop patting Lalli during a stop at his aunt's house. It had been soon followed by Emil making it clear he didn't believe Lalli was a mage, but was still consistent with his idea. He'd have to watch them more closely to see if there was something to it.

Considering his day had started out as not being able to go to that Old World school because he had a fever, he was surprised by all he was able to tell Hildur when she came to visit that night. He chose to not tell her anything her heard from Onni and Lalli's discussion, considering Onni would tell her anything he thought she should know himself. However, his mind was split between his amusement at the coincidence and how little he liked the answer when she asked him a very familiar question:  
-Have you made any friends yet?  
-I don't know... I'm not sure I can trust my own judgement about people anymore. And what Mikkel said about the cat reminded me that we were still doing dangerous stuff, and that most of them are more exposed to it than I am. I know I have to trust them if I want to have a chance to make it back, but that doesn't require making friends. And if I make friends with none of them, it won't be so hard if one of them turns out to be like Helena. We'll probably never see each other after this anyway.  
-I see why you would think this. But do me a favor. Please give at least one of them a chance.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Torbjörn still couldn't believe how fast action had been taken on this case. He decided this was a good thing for the time being, but there was currently one small issue:  
-Do the three of us really need to be interrogated at the same time? I really don't feel comfortable letting other house employees help them.  
Taru patted Torbjörn shoulder:  
-Don't worry. If we're away while they call, they can contact Mora or Øresund base.  
-I guess you're right.

-Wait, we need these to guide the Silent World expedition in case they call.  
-These are now evidence in an attempted murder case. And there are two other places they can contact, right?  
-It is true. But please make copies for us, just in case.  
-You'll have the first ones tomorrow.

-Did you really just say "fruit juice was spilled on the radio"?  
-Yes.  
-You have two mages with you. Can't they do something?  
-From what I can tell, neither our gods nor the Finn's have considered the possibility of such a situation.  
-I understand why lady Hildur would have never researched a rune for that. And I guess "radio" and "fruit juice" are both completely foreign notions for the Finn.  
-Are you going to make fun of our guest or come give the radio a look?  
-Since when are these two things mutually exclusive?

Reynir was quite sure that if they would have been able to contact anyone, they would have advised against leaving their campsite near the school with such a snowfall going on. Lalli had found a new campsite in one of the other potential research sites of interest, but the tunnel leading to it had made the kitten's fur stand on end, despite all troll pods in it seemingly being dead. Sigrun, Mikkel and Emil were currently outside with the kitten, trying to find and kill the trolls it had detected. Reynir was currently inside with Tuuri and Lalli. The latter had fallen asleep almost as soon as he had returned from scouting the site. Tuuri had expressed worry that he could be too tired to scout after having done so all night and spent the better part of breakfast time performing some kind of Finnish ceremony on the corpse of a dog beast. She had definitely hit the nail on the head in the present case.

The three of them eventually came back. There had actually been only one troll, but it had bitten Sigrun's arm before they had managed to kill it. It had been that or Emil's neck. Almost as soon as she had been stitched up, Sigrun insisted on taking Reynir and Tuuri to the place where the troll had died, because she was quite sure they'd love it. At first, the place looked like yet another Rash hospital set up in a place that wasn't initially intended to take care of the sick. But in that one, according to Mikkel, the patients seemed to have died from something else than the Rash, as the corpses only showed signs of the early stages of the illness. All the dead bodies were in beds, and the only sign of caretakers was a letter left behind by them, addressed to the sick in case they ever woke up and telling them that they would be back after scavenging for supplies. There was also a box of syringes that Mikkel decided to bring back to the tank for some reason. During all this time, all that Reynir had been able to look at were the ghost-like entities that seemed to hover over every single bed.  
-Uh... Tuuri? Did Lalli say something about spirits being here?  
-He did, but he called them weird, so he must not have any idea what they are.  
-So it's not just me being clueless. They are kind of creepy, though.  
-Don't worry. Most spirits are barely even notice humans. They are probably harmless.  
Reynir wasn't completely reassured by this:  
-"Most?" "Probably?"  
Mikkel sighed:  
-Can the two of you avoid discussing things that do not exist when there are plenty of things that are actually here to look at?  
Reynir sighed, took a few notes, and gave a second look at the room in case he saw something the others had missed. He did, however, give into a gut feeling telling him to avoid the walls against which the beds were aligned.

As soon as they went back to the tank, Reynir realized that the syringes in the box brought back by Mikkel seemed familiar. He shifted through his drawings from the book salvaged from the first treatment center and found his copy of the flyer. Almost as soon as he had put on the top of the pile, Mikkel told him to go back to bed, as he gave every indication of not having completely recovered from the previous day's fever.  
-Is it because of the ghosts? Because Lalli saw them too.  
Reynir realized how little he was helping his own case when looking in the dormitory's direction reminded him of how much Lalli had seemed to be craving sleep when he came back from scouting the place.  
-My point exactly. Tuuri and myself can take care of the rest. I will wake both of you up for dinner.

When he came to his protected area, Hildur was there. She told him their radio was damaged and that she and Onni had spent so much time to find a way to help that they had realized neither of them was on watch only part-way through eating lunch. She apologized even more profusely when she realized that neither Reynir's tutors back home nor Øresund base had been able to act as a back-up. Reynir reassured her, telling her they had been able to manage on their own for the day and had ended up going to a very interesting place earlier than planned precisely because there had been nobody to tell them not to. She also commiserated with him on the subject of being sent back to bed by a godless medic due to having "hallucinations" too soon after having been sick.

When dinner time came, Lalli was found to be impossible to wake up, despite having been asleep for longer than Reynir.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

-And you're sure these killer ghosts were a vision and not just a dream?  
-Well, my dog led me to it, and told me to remember what I just saw near the end. So if that was not vision, I'm not sure what it was.  
-A part of your mind that still thinks every single one of us may be an assassin in disguise?  
The glare Sigrun gave Mikkel at this suggestion wasn't that far off from the one Reynir wished he could give him at the moment. One of the unforeseen side effects of his father's plans was that they gave Mikkel a ready-made explanation for any manifestation of his powers that Reynir mentioned within earshot of him, and made them "additional symptoms" to what Reynir knew to be actual reactions of his mind and body to those events. He resumed his conversation with Sigrun:  
-Maybe we should leave for another campsite when we come back?  
-Visions can be tricky, especially first-time ones. Preparing for them too early can sometimes cause the very avoidable thing that the gods were trying to warn about. Or make it worst. I know it sounds risky, but mistakes are less likely to be made when acting only when the event is close enough that there is no mistake possible on the vision's meaning.  
-I see... I'll try paying attention, then.  
-You'd better, if nothing better than a dog is protecting you.

Reynir quickly saw the wisdom in Sigrun's words, barring her remark about his dog. The sick room in Kastellet fort had the same strange ghost-like spirits as their current campsite. He had previously not paid attention to the fact that his vision was clearly happening there, and not in another location that had strange ghosts. Unfortunately, he had trouble convincing Tuuri and Mikkel to not venture too close to the ghosts, the former claiming there was no danger if the kitten she had in her pocket was calm, the latter not believing the ghosts were even there. Mikkel had the following words for him as he passed Reynir in the entrance, beyond which he had refused to walk:  
-You know, if you've suddenly grown scared of those sick rooms, you just need to tell us and we'll stop taking you there. Keeping you from staying idle is one thing, but giving you too many bad experiences to deal with at a time would be ill-advised as well.  
-I'm not scared of the sick rooms. I was perfectly fine in the first one. The two last ones just have scary ghosts that the first one didn't have.  
-Yes... "Ghosts".  
It was no use.

They came back to the tank to the news that the fruit juice incident in Mora had been settled. Lalli still hadn't woken up according to Emil, who had stayed to watch him. Calling home, where their usual helpers were available again, had been necessary to find out what the address on the package of syringes brought back from the site corresponded to. It was an ancient hospital quite far away, but on the way to the pickup spot that Trond had planned for them. Unfortunately, there were no plans to move towards the destination until the next day.

The owl chanting with Onni's voice, and the ewe that had Hildur's eyes, had managed to get the ghosts out. When Reynir's awareness came back to the real world, Sigrun and Mikkel were regaining consciousness, and Lalli wasn't screaming anymore. Reynir realized that either Sigrun or Mikkel was going to notice that the tank was moving as soon as they were sufficiently aware of their surroundings, and moved out of the entrance to the driver's cabin. Fortunately, Sigrun's first reaction was to look around for Reynir:  
-The ghosts you've been complaining about, by any chance?  
-Yes.  
-Okay, I definitely don't want a face to face with these again. Tuuri, get us out of this city and try finding a new campsite.

Sigrun, Mikkel and Emil had had to fight trolls so they could leave the city. When Reynir finally fell asleep, he had been inside a strange building, possibly another vision, instead of his protected area. He'd had to wake up from that and fall back asleep before reaching his protected area, where a frantic Hildur was waiting for him.  
-Do you have any idea of what they are?  
-No. Onni says he couldn't read them, and Finns are supposed to actually be better than us at spirit stuff, even if many won't admit it. Where did they even come from?  
-Some Old Word Rash sick rooms. One of them was in one of the buildings surrounding our campsite, the other was one that we visited today because it gave indications of having something interesting.  
-What was that "something interesting", exactly?  
He told her about the patients that had apparently died of something other than the Rash, the syringes that had been found in both sick rooms, the flyer in the first research site and their plans to go to the place in which the syringes had been manufactured.  
-Could this be... what I think it could be?  
-We're not sure yet, but yes. It looks like someone may have found a cure to the Rash. We are going to that hospital to find out what it was exactly.  
To his surprise, Hildur laughed:  
-What's so funny?  
-Sorry to do that, especially after all you've been through but... to think of father's initial intent for this expedition, and what it may end up accomplishing because it failed... but you and your crewmates are going to need to keep these things away if you want to get there in one piece. Let me teach a few runes that will help with this before you wake up. I really don't know much about warding off spirits, but it's better than nothing.  
-Can I ask you something before we start?  
-What?  
-What happened to the left side of your hair?  
-If you are ever around these kids, avoid going into trance at all costs. But I was quite lucky compared to Onni. They managed to cut a tiny part of his ear off.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Lalli had woken up in morning while they were all outside waiting for breakfast to be ready. They had all, except for Mikkel, been too distracted by naming Kitty to notice him leaving the tank and going to lean against a nearby tree. Emil had had a big smile on his face when had Mikkel pointed out Lalli's presence to the others, and brought Lalli his breakfast, but had come back covered in the tasteless, but filling substance Mikkel dared to call breakfast. Emil had ended up standing right next to Reynir while he was cleaning up the mess on his uniform jacket.  
-What happened? Reynir asked.  
-I wish I knew, replied Emil.  
It took both of them a while to realize it was the first time they had spoken to each other in a while. By pure chance, Lalli's more conspicuous use of magic had so far been away from both Mikkel and Emil's eyes and ears, while the more discrete part of it was very easy to mistake for "Lalli being Lalli". Reynir's own magic practice had resulted in runes drawn on pieces of paper, drawn on the ground and sometimes carved into slates of wood, which were much more visible by comparison. Emil had figured out that openly criticizing it was not a good idea, but that had reduced their outside the field relationship to Emil periodically glancing at him with what seemed to be a curiosity to which he refused to admit. Reynir, on the other hand, was so bemused by the fact that Emil was somehow befriending Lalli that he had taken to keep a studying eye on them each time he happened to be around when they interacted. The only form of understanding he and Emil seemed to have reached was to not complain about each other's "spying" to each other, Sigrun or Mikkel, or else risk getting called out on their own practice of it. The morning on which Lalli had fallen into unconsciousness, Emil had lent him his coat a couple of times. He had spent most of yesterday sitting next to a sleeping Lalli, a worried look on his face. Getting food dumped on himself was probably one of the last things Emil expected to happen after this.  
-Do something about your hair, it's a disgrace of a mess.  
Every single strand not kept in Reynir's braid had indeed started a mutiny during their short night of sleep.  
-Having a bad hair day, not my fault.  
-It's a bad hair week you're having, in that case. You could really use a comb. Hey, where did Tuuri go?  
-She's speaking to Lalli.  
Soon after, Emil gave up on cleaning with a rag and walked to the tank, presumably to get his spare jacket.

When Tuuri asked for someone to keep Onni busy over the radio while she was working with Lalli, Reynir jumped to the opportunity, both to thank him for his help in person and to spare him the experience of having small talk with Mikkel. Even without Mikkel's teasing, Reynir didn't like the idea of a discussion between him and a professional mage who could actually understand what he said. Hildur joined in the conversation, and both of them had been very interested in the fact that the very first site that Reynir had visited didn't seem to have any ghosts, despite being an old Rash hospital. They eventually came up with an idea:  
-Do not actively look for places that have ghosts. If you do end up in such place anyway, do your best to not disturb them. Try having at least Lalli or yourself in the group visiting as many sites as possible. Take note of where you see them. Take note of where you do not see them. Write down which of you saw them, just in case. If you start seeing a pattern, either in their presence or their absence, tell us. If they follow, use the runes and spells to keep them away from your vehicle.  
Just as Reynir was noting these instructions down, Tuuri was ready to speak with Onni, who said he had to speak to Lalli first. Emil took that opportunity to ask Tuuri why Lalli was snubbing him, only to be told that he just seemed in a bad mood, and that Tuuri usually waited it out since he never told her the reason of it anyway. Emil's response sparked Reynir's interest:  
-Honestly, if I were ignored when I'm angry, that would make me even angrier. I'm not going to do that.  
Emil noticed Reynir was in the room, and gave him their silently agreed-upon "the time I'll tolerate you watching me has run out" look. That was Reynir's cue to leave the room.

For the first time in the morning, Reynir had time to properly think about the vision that he had had the previous night. He quickly realized, from the details he remembered, that he must have been inside a church. There had been such buildings near where he lived, all dedicated to a single Old World god that was no longer worshipped, but had been very popular at the time right before the Rash. He remembered the voice of unknown source he had heard before waking up, and what it had asked. "Is somebody there?" indeed. He definitely didn't know enough to act on that particular vision anytime soon. Most importantly, why would that god want to do anything with someone chosen by the Old Gods? Did the Old Gods really want nothing to do with the worshippers of the others, or had he simply spent too much time around his father's friends, some of whom believed that all Swedes, Danes and Finns should be converted by force for their own good? Things to figure out were piling up at an alarming rate.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

During the two weeks separating the first building containing ghosts from the Odense hospital, things in the Known World had moved so fast that the Silent World was being true to its name by comparison. The trial had been postponed until the expedition came back. What Reynir's father had most likely intended as a time-buying measure had backfired when the authorities finally took the possibility of the expedition crew's families being threatened in the meantime seriously. Their families were now under official protection, while Hildur and Bjarni's servants could keep an eye out for anyone who could be secretly allied with their father. Someone had also realized that that request had probably been made with the secret hope that something would happen to the crew before the end of the expedition, and that over-the-radio statements from them would be better than no statement at all if such a thing were to occur. Once these statements had been made, the lawyers defending both sides had been authorized to interrogate them. And this is where Reynir and his siblings realized just how many back-up plans their father must have had in mind.

His new plan was to make sure that if he was going to jail, he wasn't going alone. Lalli's actions on the first day made perfect sense for a scout trained to discard everything not fit for human consumption with no idea that the Icelandic justice system frowned upon the deliberate destruction of hard evidence. Reynir's father's defenders were now making him out to be so unable to understand the consequences of his actions that living in Finland was the only reason he had yet to be placed in a proper institution. They also made out Tuuri's decision to bring him on the expedition to be neglectful at best, abusive at worst. The same charges were being thrown at Onni for letting this happen. Sigrun, who had taken the initiative to start reporting to Reynir's tutors and cut all communications with Øresund base during the first few days, was going to have to answer to mutiny charges, to which she had simply replied "bring it". Taru, Trond and Torbjörn were on metaphorical thin ice as well, and Emil was going to be painted as an accomplice to the latter, despite the fact that they were probably the pair of pre-mission acquaintances that talked to each other the less. Mikkel was going to be charged with malpractice. The fact that the office chair that had wheels was now "Reynir's", the couple mornings he had simply been unable to get out of bed and the handful times he had helped Mikkel do the domestic chores because he was unable to focus long enough to do even basic skald work were now being blamed on trouble accepting his mage powers rather than the discovery that they had been hidden from him for so long. That and the whole trying to get him killed situation.

Under cover of wanting Reynir to tell his version of the facts without anyone else hovering over him, one of his father's defenders had spoken to him while he was alone in the office and suggested that the charges against the crew could all go away if he let himself "be careless at just the right moment". Since the crew's families were now safe, the crew itself was now held hostage against him. And of course, he tried to make out every single day Reynir decided to stay alive as an utterly selfish act. Reynir had found a couple of counters to it. The first was pointing that if he let himself die, he would have no way of seeing if the charges would be actually dropped. Even if he had considered deliberately getting himself in an "accident" a reasonable option in the current circumstances, there was no way he was going to accept the man's word for it. The second, Reynir refused to share with him, as he suspected it would otherwise turn into the wrong kind of leverage. The limits of what Onni had been able to teach Lalli only made the ghosts catch up with them more slowly than they would have without the spells, all the runes Hildur could think of only made that time slightly better, and researching new Finnish spells was apparently a more laborious affair than coming up with new runes. The latter still required as many minds working on it as possible. There were just enough people in the crew who were aware of that he had become essential to the crew's chances of making it out of the Silent World alive to make them a just little bit more trustworthy in his eyes than anyone working for his father.

Fortunately, Sigrun had found just the words to keep them going with the research despite this:  
-If we're going to come back a bunch of misfits and criminals, let's be the misfits and criminals that come back with a new lead on a Rash cure. The people who made this stuff and got it delivered to all these places didn't give up, despite the fact that things were so bad that they never got it to the Known World. We are all going to look like wimps compared to them if we give up now.  
Reynir had taken this to mean that he shouldn't give up on taking notes about the strange ghosts either. He'd noted the locations on a spare map, to keep anything Mikkel would not like off the main annotated map, which was already overcrowded with symbols. There was nothing of interest that they knew of at their next stop, and the one after that would be, finally, Odense. This time was as good as any to compare the ghost map with the main one, on the off-chance that he found something new from it. He quickly realized that there was an almost-perfect match between the ghost locations and the places that had gotten the possible cure or vaccine. When he checked his notes about the one location that had received the cure but was devoid of ghosts, he realized that the match was actually perfect. That specific location had technically gotten the cure, but none of the boxes had been opened. The patients there had all died of the Rash, and there had been a couple of trolls there as well. If that pattern held, there would be ghosts in the Odense hospital. And possibly an explanation.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Sigrun eyed the six paper runes Reynir had left on the desk:  
-The last three things you came up with on your own didn't work, according to both yourself and Lalli. What makes you think these ones will work?  
-Nothing, really. But we won't know until we try them out.  
-Sorry, but I think I'm a going to opt out for today. It's going to be the six of us in a quite small store, and we are already tempting fate in terms of breaking things just by having Emil in there.  
A thin gloved hand grabbed one of the pieces of paper:  
-Ghosts? Keep away?  
-Yes. I hope.  
It took Reynir a while to realize that Lalli had just said "ghosts" and "keep away" in Swedish. He vaguely remembered Tuuri mentioning teaching him Swedish during work, but the eye Reynir had kept on him and Emil at a time had been sacrificed for more important things. Covering the biggest number of buildings possible between them had frequently resulted in only one of them going inside a given one, which had meant that Reynir being around both Emil and Lalli while both of them were awake had become a rare occurrence, even once back in the tank. He was vaguely aware that that they were back to "talking" terms after the "whatever food breakfast was supposed to be" incident, but that was about it. Another hand, one of the two Reynir the least expected, grabbed a rune:  
-I'm in a good mood today, I'll take one of the "magical" drawings.  
Emil made a show of delicately putting the piece of paper in his pocket.  
-Why are all six of us needed to go to that store anyway?  
Reynir was quite sure Emil had been already told at least twice since Lalli had found it less than an hour ago:  
-The contents were antiques ninety years ago. It's the first time we run into a place where such things have been preserved in a relatively good state. Many things there may have to be brought back by us or not at all.

-No, I'm quite sure that language is called "Kung fu". Where do you guys get such weird words as "Chinalandic" and "Mandarin" from anyway?  
Emil looked at all three of them, looking ready to stand his ground about the contents of the book on display.  
-Finnish army skalds.  
-One of my in-laws had a great-grandfather who lived in that country. Biggest expert on that part of the Old World that we have.  
-Your uncle.  
Torbjörn had actually mentioned Emil a few times before Reynir got to actually meet him, and had once done so while saying that he didn't want him to "end up like Emil". Between the present incident, the DVDs brought back from the school in which Kitty had been found and other occurrences of seeming to believe blatantly incorrect facts during the past couple of weeks, Reynir had figured out what Torbjörn had meant. Torbjörn had admitted that he would have probably made the exact same mistake with his own children's education if Emil's side of the family getting hit a lot harder by the loss of the family fortune hadn't acted as a wake-up call.

As Tuuri, Mikkel and Sigrun were discussing the possibility that there could still be people alive in Chinaland, Reynir continued browsing the store and noticed a few items that seemed to relate to the religion to which churches were temples, reminding him of that vision to which he hadn't been able to commit much thought in the past two weeks. He borrowed the camera from Tuuri to take a few photos, then sketched as many objects as he could before they all decided to leave.

He decicded to take a nap right after the next meal. Once there, his fylgja had looked in the direction of what seemed to be another vision, but had refused to lead him there, and ran off when Reynir decided to carry it to the area. Upon a closer look, it looked like the outside of a church. He didn't dare go in there alone. Lalli wasn't in his area, so he decided to go towards the Mora ones, hoping they'd be occupied.

When had watching Hildur's younger brother moved from letting him stay in his protected area to following him in a strange area in the dreamspace? He wasn't even supposed to go out there with "it" roaming around. Most importantly, since when did it involve being invited for some kind of collation by a strange ghost? Onni had initially tried to steer Reynir away from it, but the kid shared an incredible amount of persuasiveness with Hildur for someone who wasn't actually blood related to her.  
-Do you mind if I drink this?  
Onni told Reynir he could drink the strange brown-colored soup that had been given to them. Reynir was one doing most of the talking. That cake looked good. When was the last time he had eaten cake? A very long time, and if it wasn't dangerous for Reynir, it wasn't going to be for him. The old lady claimed that her job was to help spirits find the afterlife, but immediately got the idea that he and Reynir needed help with that particular thing. After Reynir refused her offer, Onni added that he, himself, belonged to the forest. Reynir was interested in what the old lady had told him, as he seemed to see it as a solution to the crew's current ghost problem. When Reynir asked the old lady where her "church" was, something happened. Their entire surroundings changed, and for the first time, Onni got an idea of what these Old World sickrooms the crew had been visiting must have looked like: what he was currently seeing out the door from where he was sitting, but with the bodies in the beds turned into skeletons if they had not become trolls. Their surroundings returned to their initial state when the old lady gave up on trying to remember. After this, Onni decided they were leaving.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Once they were far away enough from the hospital that he no longer had to try keeping the ghosts away just by wishing very hard for it, Reynir realized that their departure circumstances meant that his predictions had been right: there were ghosts wherever that Rash cure had been used. But before he could give it any more thought, Lalli was suddenly extremely close to his masked face for someone who preferred avoiding physical contact and speaking Swedish to him:  
-Drawing. Ghosts come close. Fire.  
-What?  
He got a much clearer version of what Lalli was probably trying to tell him from Emil:  
-Your damn drawing caught fire in my pocket! Do you realize I have to carry explosives for my work?  
That could have become ugly indeed.  
-I'm sorry! I didn't know it would do that! I'm still learning!  
Well, at least that one was doing something, not like the other ones. His following thought was the realization that from Emil's point of view, a random drawing had spontaneously caught fire in his pocket, yet he had to be accepting the fact to some degree to have just been complaining to Reynir about it. He was probably about to ask him a bunch on questions. That expectation was shot down immediately by Emil simply turning away and making a beeline for the dormitory, where he just collapsed on his bunk. On the other hand, maybe things would have to move slowly with him. Accepting that something had caught fire by magic and telling the person who was responsible as far as he was concerned was one thing. Actually asking questions about it may be a level of acceptance for which Emil wasn't ready yet. Reynir turned his eye to Mikkel. Had he heard any of what Emil or Lalli had said? Apparently not, as he had been busy keeping the papers away from Reynir and Tuuri until he was sure the two of them could come close to them without any risk.

Mikkel told the story in both Icelandic and Danish to make as many people possible aware of the situation. Lalli would have been the only one left out if it wasn't for the fact that he was already taking a nap. The people in that place had found something that cured the Rash, but it had the unexplained side effect of gradual, and irreversible brain death. However, the report made it obvious that they were aware of trolls at the time, even though they weren't called that yet, or named at all. They had made a decision for all the patients: that it was better for them to get that "cure" than to risk turning into a troll. They had manufactured it and sent it to as many treatment centers as they could, not informing caretakers of the side effects. Reynir remembered that letter in the first campsite containing both the cure and the ghosts, which suggested that the caretakers were genuinely expecting the patients to wake up.

They were now only a few days away from their pick up spot, which was a Danish outpost built during the reclamation attempts. The boat meant to pick them up was about to be sent away from Iceland, but it would take at least twenty days for it to reach them. They were considered to have done enough already and suggested to use their waiting time to prepare properly for what was awaiting them once they came back, whatever that ended up being. Just as Torbjörn was telling them this, Reynir noticed Lalli preparing to head out much earlier than usual.

Reynir had felt that the ghosts and trolls that had been following them the whole way were getting closer every day, but he hadn't realized that they had become that close. Once they has parked the tank in a field that left an open line of fire, Reynir informed Onni and Hildur via dreamspace, in case they were able to help. Lalli then dragged him outside and asked him to draw his newest rune outside the tank. He also made a few runes to keep trolls away, but wasn't able to make them completely surround the tank before he literally bumped into Mikkel, who was not happy seeing him outside at all. Reynir considered himself lucky to not have been noticed in such a long time, when he heard Emil whispering to him as Mikkel was dragging him inside:  
-Couldn't distract him forever, sorry.  
So Emil accepted what had happened earlier in the day enough to realize that he shouldn't be interrupted while drawing runes. The fact that Mikkel was currently pushing him into the dormitory told him what a difference even that level of understanding could make. Fortunately, one of the first things Reynir had done with the anti-troll runes taught to him by Hildur had been to draw a few on the dormitory's walls. He had even managed to paint a large version of the most powerful one on the floor. He and Tuuri, who was sitting on Emil's bunk, were going to be safe in there.

Hildur almost finished the job that the children had started on her hair when she realized how little she was going to able to do to help. When Onni had said that he was going to need a completely empty room, she had helped him and Bjarni clear a place that was really a storage closet, and hence didn't contain any furniture that wasn't intended to be easy to move. What Onni was going to try was going to put such a strain on his body that he was going to be out for several days, and Hildur was to be the one to provide long-distance assistance to the crew if it turned out to be needed in the meantime. Her more immediate task was to keep Siv and the children away from the room, and get him in bed once he collapsed. Why did that horde have to catch up with them today, of all days? Was their discovery, or rather lack of it, going to be overshadowed by her father getting proven right just a few hours later? She'd give anything for this to not happen. Anything.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

He couldn't be mad at them for accidentally trampling the runes that could have kept it from getting that close. They certainly had had something better to do than being careful as to where exactly they put their feet. Practically everything else that could be blamed for what had happened was something someone who was fighting for their lives and those of others would not think to pay attention to. This also meant that Sigrun had absolutely no excuse to have neglected to tell Mikkel about her arm disturbing her. For once, he and Mikkel could agree about something. Even he could tell that catching that bat beast before it bit Tuuri's face was a long shot, but Sigrun had been the only one with a somewhat realistic opportunity to keep it from happening. And the remote possibility that she could have maybe managed it if she hadn't let that infection build up was enough for Reynir to be mad at her.

One of the other reasons he was mad, he still couldn't quite understand himself. He'd told himself plenty of times that the crew was indeed better off with him alive than dead. But now, for some reason, he wished that he, and not Tuuri, had been the one that had been bitten by that bat. If he cared enough to not want to see her get in trouble for allegedly mistreating Lalli, he obviously cared enough to not want to see her die. However, the idea of seeing her die hurt much more than he felt it should, and the wish to have been bitten instead surpassed all the rational reasons he could come up with to not feel that way. Right now, all the immunes were outside, some of them scanning for surviving trolls and beasts. The least he could do was stay inside until they were done, especially since he wasn't sure he had anything to contribute other than the temptation to yell at them all. He had just enough of his wits left to realize that any yelling at them would only make things worse. Because of that, the second thing he could do was do what he could to calm down on his own, so he would be composed by the time someone talked with him again.

What was she going to do? Onni had asked her to bring him news via dreamspace as soon as she found out anything, and now Tuuri insisted upon telling him herself once he woke up. Hildur couldn't just not go there either, as here mere absence would be almost as bad as actually telling him that there was bad news concerning one of his family members. Especially that she felt partly responsible, having had the extremely vivid thought that she would give anything for the crew, and especially Reynir, to survive that night. Everyone had indeed survived that night. But Onni's own little sister may very well not survive the next month. How could she face him after that, whether in the dream world or the waking one? In the end, her thoughts were able to cohere into a sentence that ended up being her verbal answer to Tuuri:  
-I am so sorry.  
They didn't have to know about the thought she'd had last night, she decided. Fortunately, she had a more acceptable reason to be sorry as well. She explained the delicate position in which Tuuri's request put her, how complicated concealing the truth could get in the dreamspace, that she yet wanted to grant Tuuri's request without creating circumstances that would let Onni know that there was something going on earlier than intended. Tuuri stayed silent for a few moments before replying:  
-Sigrun. Her arm is in bad shape. An infection built up on some of her wounds from two weeks ago. Mikkel says it will be treatable with medicine, but if it weren't for me, this would be the most serious thing that happened. If he notices you being worried or can guess you're not telling him something, tell him it's about that.  
An infection building up on an old wound. It was still one of the more worrying things that could happen to non-immune people, and something that deserved attention on its own. Hildur realized that there was another truth she could tell Onni: everyone was alive and in no risk of dying anytime soon (if one took "soon" as meaning "only the next few days") and it was all thanks to him.

-Ghosts. Keep away. No fire.  
That was it. The world was definitely telling him that he being much sadder about Tuuri than he was entitled to. The person on the crew who had every right to spend the day sulking about it in some corner if he chose to was handing him drawing materials and telling him to use them to do something useful. Okay, he got the message. No time like the present to get started. Reynir realized something only as he started drawing runes:  
-Wait, how are we going to know if any of these work before tonight?  
He had asked the question in Norwegian, hoping he would have a better chance to be understood.  
-Ghosts. Hiding. House. Not far. I go. With drawings.  
-Got it. Thanks.  
Lalli just stood next to the tank's entrance, watching him work on the steps. Reynir was quite sure he saw Lalli pick up Kitty to hug her less than an hour ago. If hugging the cat could perform such a miracle on Lalli's mood despite him hating the animal very existence most of the time, Reynir wouldn't mind trying this himself. Unfortunately, just about everyone else needed the cat for something, so his own turn with her would have to wait.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

-Well, you're quite good friends with her, so I'm guessing it's almost as hard for you as it is for Lalli.  
Reynir was quite sure that it was actually harder for him than for Lalli. But the reason Emil offered for it made complete sense to one part of his brain, and was pure idiocy to another. Having made friends with Tuuri would indeed explain his mood... if he had actually made friends with her. Granted that he had spoken with her more than with everyone else, but this was because they worked together. And in spending so much time working together, of course they would end up finding out things about each other that didn't pretain to work. But he was still reluctant to actually make friends with any of them. Could friendships just happen without people noticing it? He was going to need a second opinion on this.  
-Thanks for asking, but you are just about the last person I feel like discussing this with.  
-Fair enough. Do you mind if I ask you about m... ma...  
Emil had been perfectly capable of pronouncing the word when had been making fun of it. But Reynir recognized that hesitation. Words having trouble coming out when they become associated when something one has trouble wraping their mind around.  
-Magic?  
Emil noded. The only reason Emil was currently next to Reynir in the first place had been that Lalli had said he'd come back soon after heading out to the old house with Reynir's runes, and Emil had understood it to be soon enough that he could just wait for him. Emil had tried breaching the subject with Lalli while Reynir was still working on the runes, only to realize that someone who couldn't even make real sentences in Swedish wasn't the best person to ask about something almost completely new to him.  
-I don't even know where to start.  
Reynir tried to remember his earliest lessons. His childhood tutors had fortunately considered that it was essential for him to know about magic, even before Hildur turned out to be a mage.  
-Are you aware that Lalli and I work differently in that regard?  
-Well, I did notice that Lalli never makes any drawings, if that's what you mean.  
-It is part of it. Lalli is supposed to be reciting spells instead of using runes. But if he's ever used anything powerful enough to require one, I was never there to see it. Wait... he must have, at least once. Whatever put him to sleep for two days must have required one.  
That part opened Emil's ears for sure.  
-You mean that time? Tuuri must have known, why didn't she... ah, probably because I wouldn't have believed her at the time. Could this happen again?  
-Probably, but I have no idea how it would happen. He's still up and running after last night, but it may be one of the reasons he wants me to do all the work today.  
Reynir realized Lalli was back only when he shoved one of his paper runes into his face:  
-This. Big. On tank.  
It probably wasn't the best place to end the conversation, but the priority was to have everyone live long enough for eventual consequence of that. Live long enough. Reynir briefly looked at the door behind which Tuuri was. Having an extra person know the actual reason why Lalli had been impossible to wake up for two full days may have actually been the right thing to do.

Tuuri unfortunately only managed to repair part of the damage that had been done to the tank's engine during the battle before night came. At least, with the rune painted on the back of the tank, a bowl of food in his hand and prospect of getting some sleep, Reynir could relax a little. Unfortunately, this moment relief ended before the meal did. One of the ghosts the rune was intended to keep away now intended to follow them wherever they went and take everyone around them, which most likely included the Known World and whoever lived there.

-Actually, maybe it is best that we all stay here forever. Father is going to get them all thrown in jail once we return anyway.  
-You'll run out of food.  
-We can hunt and scavenge.  
-You'll eventually run out of something vital that needs to be manufactured.  
Reynir knew Hildur meant a specific thing: breathing mask filters didn't last forever.  
-We can get it delivered during daytime.  
-Along with a bunch of Danish hired thugs that have been persuaded that they are dodging their trial with a flimsy excuse, holding you hostage or both?  
-I wouldn't mind letting the ghosts have them... if didn't know they probably have families of their own that they are trying to provide for.  
Reynir let himself drop on his back in the grass of Hildur's space. So that was it. Unless that church lady, who had mysteriously vanished, turned out to be able to help after all, they were going to watch Tuuri die far away from home. Even if she turned out to not be infected after all, she and Reynir would be the first to go. But he refused to let his father be vindicated. And just for that sake, he was going to keep trying as long as he could.

Events unfortunately eroded his will much faster than he would have thought possible. Tuuri was still trying to repair the engine several days later, and they were getting dangerously close to the point at which they would have to try reach the outpost on foot, leaving the tank and most of their research material behind. Reynir had initially kept himself busy by continuing to copy book illustrations during the long hours he had to spend inside, but lost all motivation to continue once he realized that they were probably weren't to be taking them home anyway. Making more portable versions of the rune keeping ghosts away had kept him busy for about a day after this. All he could now do was try to coming up with a new rune, but he had no idea what to make that he hadn't already tried. There was one he wished he could make, but he definitely wasn't going to be the one coming up with it if ninety years worth of the best Icelandic mages working together hadn't. To top things off, it was now raining outside. He suddenly heard the engine come back to life, just barely.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Onni hadn't woken up in the past few days, which meant both Reynir and Hildur had had to continue omitting the fact that Tuuri had been bitten by the bat beast when they went to visit him. On top of this, Lalli had turned out to be unable to help in terms of finding the Old World lady that could help them with the ghosts. The trip starting again had given Reynir time to think, and realize that they wouldn't have been in such a situation if he hadn't foolishly wanted this Silent World expedition to happen. Maybe his father would have found another way to get him killed, but at least he wouldn't have had to live with knowing his father's true feelings towards him. His tutors, along with their friends and family, wouldn't have been dragged into it. So, when Tuuri decided they should have a chat through the door separating their halves of the tank one evening, all Reynir was able to do was apologize for wanting the expedition to happen, and putting her in situation where she had to wait two weeks to know whether she was going to live or die. Her answer surprised him:  
-Don't apologize about this. It's been my dream to go on an adventure like this ever since I can remember. This is the one opportunity I've been given! Without it, I would have gone out on my own eventually, I'm sure of it. Which probably wouldn't have ended up well either.  
She went on to tell him how she had wanted this ever since she was kid, and how jealous she had been when Lalli had been able to leave their home settlement freely while she couldn't. It reminded him of a similar feeling he'd had as a child. The difference between them had been that his family could afford to get him prepared for the expedition, fund it, and hire other people to protect him. Now that he knew that both the Silent World and the Known World had dangers to which he had been completely oblivious, he wished this could have stayed a dream. Maybe if his family hadn't been that rich, they would have had every excuse to keep him home, and his father wouldn't have been embarrassed enough by his existence to want him dead. Someone else would have eventually funded an expedition that actually had the purpose of finding out more about the Silent World. At least, now that they knew what was out there, they could tell everyone back in the safe areas to not bother with a second expedition.

Reynir's mother had once told him to be careful what to wish for, because he could actually get it someday. There had been plenty of times where he had gotten so tired of a specific kind of radio contact that he wished the radio would actually break. It had finally happened, but only because the tank's engine had been damaged beyond repair. They were going to have to walk to the pick-up spot and rely entirely on mage-to-mage communication. Mikkel and Tuuri were to spend the day packing, Lalli and Emil had been sent to collect supplies, Sigrun was resting. Tonight was going to be their last night in the tank.

Mere seconds after finishing to paint the ghost-repelling rune on the Old World tent that Lalli and Emil had brought back and putting it somewhere out of the way to dry, Reynir was overwhelmed with a strange feeling that suddenly made him unwilling to move a muscle. Just as he was trying to identify it, he heard Finnish yelling outside. Soon after, he heard Mikkel tell him to put his mask on. He then called for Tuuri, for a little longer than he should have needed to. Reynir knew something was really wrong when Mikkel actually came to check his section of the tank to make sure Tuuri wasn't in there. Once his search was over, Mikkel finally noticed that Reynir had been sitting in the entrance listless all this time, quickly made sure it wasn't something more urgent than getting hold of Tuuri, and continued his search, telling him to keep the door closed. After an eternity that couldn't have been more than a few minutes, Sigrun came back alone, and told Mikkel something. Reynir opened the door to listen into the conversation just in time to clearly hear the words "autopsy report". Sigrun, who was the one facing the tank, was the first to notice that Reynir was listening, as his own mind was struggling to find words to say. Mikkel picked up a few supplies, then left as Sigrun stayed to keep an eye on Reynir. He finally managed to get words out:  
-What happened?  
-It looks like Tuuri drowned herself. It was too late to do anything.  
-Why?  
-Given the circumstances, I'd guess that she started showing symptoms and this was her reaction to it. But we won't know for sure until Mikkel examines her.

Mikkel had come back with news that proved Sigrun's guess correct. As they preferred having Reynir inside while the body was burned, the best they had been able to do was quickly sanitize the driver's cabin so he could watch from a room with windows. But the burial had ended up happening too far away for him to see anything clearly through the tears in his eyes, and he ended up wasting Mikkel's efforts even more when he ended up spending most of it with his face buried in his arms, sitting in the seat that had been almost entirely Tuuri's for the entire trip. Sigrun eventually pulled him out of it both figuratively and literally, and gave him a backpack to carry. He noticed Emil and Lalli weren't coming, and Sigrun explained that Lalli had things to do before leaving and that he and Emil would catch up to him later. Reynir had no idea how he would be able to face Lalli when he would come back. He probably wasn't the only one to consider himself entirely responsible for Tuuri's death.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

-Not over there! The ghosts set up camp over there.  
In his grief, Reynir had thought of telling Mikkel this in Norwegian, so Sigrun would know exactly what was going on. Sigrun ordered him to listen to Reynir on the subject of the "spirits". Considering that he was alone with a couple of grieving religious people who hadn't had any sleep the previous night, he decided that it was best to humor them for the evening.

Hildur wrapped her arms around Reynir the second he appeared in his dream safe area.  
-Here you are! Why didn't you sleep last night? Did something happen?  
Reynir burst into tears and collapsed into her arms:  
-Tuuri. She...  
-Started showing symptoms?  
It turned out to be far worse than Hildur had imagined. The she realized that Onni probably knew on some level. He had woken up from his coma in the early morning, but had spent the day in a daze. Siv, to whom the coma had come out of nowhere, had started to suspect a stroke. Hildur decided that she was going to be the one find out what, exactly, Onni knew, and to fill any blanks there still was in his understanding of the events if he let her. Unfortunately, Reynir had more bad news. They were now journeying on foot, and they had left Lalli and Emil at the funeral site, expecting to have them catch up later. They hadn't come back when they had all gone to bed and Sigrun was planning to backtrack to look for them the next morning. Hildur suddenly realized something quite worrying. She had chosen to wait near the edge of Reynir's dream area that was the closest to Lalli's so she could look out for the young Finn as well. Of the two, only Reynir had shown up, and it was already quite late. In the best-case scenario, Lalli was running on dangerously little sleep. In the worst one... she didn't want to think of it right now. And she'd have to tell Onni about that, too. Not only she couldn't afford to lie to him anymore, but either his family link to Lalli or his brand of magic could possibly give Onni a means of finding him that neither she nor Reynir had.

Pieces of a giant, and no sign of Emil nor Lalli. Probably a mutual kill of sorts. Looking for them had tired Sigrun out, to the point that she had collapsed in the middle of the road to their next camping spot. The very person she had tried to protect by incurring the wound responsible for her state was now dead, in addition to Tuuri. As for Lalli, Reynir had dreaded his next conversation with him just the day before. Now, he was ready to give everything to be able to actually have it, even if it was to be angrily shouted at for wanting this expedition to happen, and that neither he nor Onni wanted to have anything to do with him anymore. On that matter, Onni had probably already had such words for Hildur and Bjarni, by now. Was Onni going to care about their father's henchmen anymore, now that neither of his two remaining family members were coming back from the expedition? Only the sight of Sigrun's body precariously balanced on top of the supplies and the refusal to be an extra physical burden to Mikkel on top of everything else, were keeping Reynir from letting himself collapse. "We need to deliver the boy and the research material to the pickup site" had been Sigrun's words. Reynir hadn't failed to noticed that she had mentioned neither herself, nor Mikkel. If he ended up being the only one alive, he'd consider putting his back-up plan into place. He was fine whether said back-up plan ended up being necessary or not. But as long as Sigrun and Mikkel were still alive, he could at least give them the satisfaction of feeling they were doing their jobs protecting him correctly, and not do anything that would make them uselessly risk their lives; travelling on foot without Emil and Lalli was more than dangerous enough on its own. Out of nowhere, Kitty gave him that characteristic cat look that gave the impression of knowing one's deepest and darkest secret. He gave a faint smile back at her. She, at least, would do fine on her own if the worst he was currently imagining happened.

Sigrun, at least, could share her thoughts with Mikkel without mentioning the ghosts, and hence have Mikkel actually listen to her. Maybe he could at least tell Mikkel about his more mundane trouble, once he was done with Sigrun, starting by the fact that he wasn't sure he'd be able to return to his home even if he managed to get rid of the ghosts. Even if his father was in jail, how could he be sure he was going to be safe in the family estate, or anywhere in the Known World for that matter? How could be he ever be sure any new person he met wasn't a friend of his father's he had yet to meet, or a hireling of any of them, sent to finish the job? He heard a gun fire, and promptly flattened himself on the ground, accidentally knocking the pan containing their dinner off the fire in the process. It quickly turned out that Sigrun had pressured Mikkel into demonstrating his shooting skills, without any idea that Reynir had been having thoughts that made nearby gunfire one of the last things he needed to hear. After that, he preferred going straight to bed.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

After slapping herself on the forehead for not thinking of doing this the night before, the only attenuating circumstance Hildur gave herself was the fact that she hadn't actually been taught to do what she was about to try yet. But between Lalli being absent from his dream realm yet again and Onni's resigned reaction to his failure to locate his cousin, this could very well be her last hope to help make things better. Her magic teacher had once explained to her that the dream realms of non-mages were in another, "deeper" layer of the dream world. This made them technically accessible from the layer on which the dream realms of mages existed. With no better idea about how to properly go about it, Hildur filled her lungs with what passed for air in the dream world and let herself sink in the dream sea. It started out quite hard to get through, but the pressure of the "water" gradually became lighter and lighter, until it started feeling like air again. She realized that she could actually breathe in it, just before finding "water" under her feet again. That part hadn't been that hard, in the end. She headed for the area corresponding to Silent Denmark.

As soon as she reached her destination, she noticed the entrance of an isolated dream realm. She entered it, only to find herself in the hallway of what seemed to be a large house. It was nowhere near as large as the home in which she had grown up, but it was quite a sign of wealth by what she had seen of Swedish standards. The various thoughts that went through her mind as she entered the first room accessible from the hallway could only agree on one thing: manifesting as her jaw dropping. Right there, on a couch, someone who looked like a ten year older version of Sune was sleeping right next to someone who had be Lalli, who looked like he was eating an entire cake. Lalli interrupted his meal to stare at her, put his plate on a nearby table and rushed to meet her. In spite of them never getting properly introduced, Lalli recognized her from a description Onni had given him of her, and explained what had happened: a giant that had taken so much energy to defeat that he had been cast out of his safe area, both he and Emil drifting away on an ice floe in the physical world. She brought Lalli back to the "mage layer", and brought him to Reynir's place to both show him that he was alive and figure out where the two groups could meet.

In the mess of tears that he had become between his relief of the good news and waking up worried about how he was going to deal with whatever Lalli was going to have in store for him, it took a lot of repeating for Mikkel and Sigrun to understand what was going on. Reynir was very happy that Sigrun was the one calling the shots, because he could easily see Mikkel deciding he had basically imagined everything, insisting on continuing to move, and obliviously forcing Lalli and Emil to reach the outpost by their own means. By noon the next day, the difficulties in convincing Mikkel to stay long enough, and Sigrun's "pat" on his back almost sending Reynir into a mud puddle, had been more than worth it. The couple of evenings away from the group had also been enough to erase Emil's remaining doubts about magic existing. Reynir's relief was unfortunately gone by the time they all had dinner that evening, as he realized that the ghosts were still following them, and that Sigrun's health was still worsening in spite of the basic healing magic he could work on her arm. Lalli didn't look in that much shape either, but at least the occasional slowness of his pace seemed to be entirely psychological, and to not be accompanied by any kind of actual illness.

This only made Lalli's sudden alertness has the group was only a couple of days of travel away from the outpost more noticeable. That alertness was promptly followed by Lalli grabbing Reynir's sleeve and dragging him on side path to the right of the one they were supposed to be following, with nothing more than a barely audible "come" in Swedish. At the end of the path was a building that Reynir promptly recognized as run-down version of the church from his visions. Lalli dragged him right inside, not even taking time to check for any trolls. Kitty, whom Reynir happened to have in the backpack he was carrying, didn't react at all, indicating that that checking for trolls may have not been necessary to start with. Reynir decided to look around, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do now. His attention was somehow drawn to a door to the entrance's right, that had something that looked like either moss or the edges of a troll nest. As he walked closer to the door, he heard a faint voice calling his name. He gestured to open the door, but Lalli stopped him:  
-No. Light not good for... it.  
So there was troll in the building. But why had neither Kitty nor Lalli... he realized that the presence behind the door felt familiar, which went a long way to explaining how he and the church's pastor had been able to make contact in the dream world, ninety years after she should have died. The second realization that came to him was that he was going to need to convince Sigrun, Mikkel and Emil to spend the upcoming night in the church.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Reynir was sleeping on the room's couch, Lalli under it. Sigrun and Mikkel were talking. Emil looked at all the books in the room in which they were staying for the night, and deeply regretted the fact that they could neither be looked at to pass time, nor taken to the pick-up spot without risking irrevocable damage. He then remembered that Reynir had been drawing some sketches and taking notes in his sole non-packed notebook before going to sleep. Just looking at the sketches couldn't hurt, right? And since he didn't know Icelandic, he would be able to read anything that Reynir didn't want others to read. Most drawings were quite small, but the first relatively big one almost made Emil's eyes pop out of their sockets. He didn't need to know Icelandic to read the date, so he could tell that the drawing that was eerily similar to what he had seen of the back of the church in which they were currently spending the night was more than three weeks old. He showed it to Mikkel, who promptly pointed out that there were plenty of old churches in Iceland, and that Reynir must have visited at least one of them for the purposes of his education. Emil found another drawing that reminded him of something, this one closer to being a week old. In that one, that depicted a room with at least a couple tables, things looked much less run-down than in the first one. The nice tea set on one of the tables in particular caught his eye, as it reminded him of one his family used to own. After staring at the drawing for a while, Emil realized he was getting no better idea of where the feeling of familiarity was coming from, closed the notebook and looked at the contents of the crowded table next to him instead. He noticed the chipped and faded tea set that shared the small space with boxes now known to have been used to deliver the unfinished medicine. Emil didn't know whether to find this impressive or creepy.

The ghosts that had been following them for weeks were being led to the afterlife through a beam of light, but Lalli could tell it was neither the doing of a Finnish mage nor that of Reynir. It was somehow a third kind of magic, that came from the large troll living in the strange building that was their shelter for the evening. He was quite sure Onni had once told him there were only two types of magic. From where he was sitting, Lalli could see Reynir watching it all happen from its just outside his own dream realm. The ghosts, now resembling sheep for some reason, were all apologizing as they floated up the beam. As the flow of ascending strange spirits was reducing, indicating that the last ones were coming in, Lalli heard Reynir speak:  
-Thank you for your help, nice lady. I wish I could have known your name.  
To Lalli's surprise, the very last spirit to pass through the beam of light answered Reynir:  
-It's Anne.  
As Reynir was correcting his goodbye to something including the name, a strange conversation from when Tuuri had been bitten, but still alive, suddenly started making sense to Lalli. During that time, Reynir had suddenly started yelling at Lalli for no apparent reason, and all Tuuri had been able to tell him was that that Reynir was expecting him to help find a random woman in a place that was clearly devoid of non-infected humans. Seeing what that woman had done, Lalli thought that he would have really wanted to find her also, if he had known that she actually existed and what she could do before tonight.

It was only after they had left the church, and he had been done answering Emil's various questions about the now-dead huge troll they had left behind, that Reynir realized how little time there was left until they arrived to safety. As long as the ghosts had been following them, he had had the option of letting them take him so they didn't follow the others back Iceland, all while giving his father what he wanted. But he had found a way of getting rid of them, without needing to die, that had sent them all to a peaceful afterlife instead. Now, he would be condemning them all the others to be locked up as soon as he set foot on the boat, where they would all be locked up twenty-four hours a day for a couple of weeks and him dying would put people who hadn't been involved in the expedition in trouble as well. If something was going to happen, it was going to have to be at the outpost, when everyone being alive would no longer be as essential to the group's survival. It would also need to be something nobody would take any risks trying to save him from. He briefly considered just telling the others about the "deal", but he knew they wouldn't want him to die if they had any say in it, and just put themselves into more trouble by trying to help find a viable alternative that probably didn't exist. As he was thinking, the voice wondering if his father's friends were going to keep their word if Reynir "had an accident" came back for the first time in a long time, and was now considering an even more sinister scenario: what if the eventual "accident" got used as part of the excuse to lock the others up anyway if the promise wasn't kept? He hoped he'd figure out a good solution soon.

By the time they arrived at the outpost, they were out of food. Fortunately, there were still some canned goods, the vast majority of which were still edible. Mikkel threw all the obviously spoiled ones away and told the others to pay attention to the smell of the cans they did eat, as some could still be spoiled and could make them very sick if eaten. The fish Reynir ate for dinner that evening tasted a little strange, but was still better than Mikkel's meals.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

His stomach had never hurt so much in his entire life. During one of the few moments during which he had been able to focus on anything else, Mikkel told him that he had probably accidentally eaten spoiled fish and had come down with food poisoning. He hadn't dared ask Mikkel about his chances to make it through. He really didn't want to know the answer. At least, when Hildur had noticed something was off, he had been able to sincerely tell her that it had all happened due to lack of attentiveness on his part. In the times during which he was unconscious, but alone, it didn't take long to realize that he had gotten exactly what he wanted. No lives would be risked trying to save him. If this killed him, it could pass as both accidental and deliberate. If he survived, the period of illness was still going to rob him of the opportunity to do something that would have had a better chance to work.

He wasn't sure of the time it had taken, but he eventually got better. He was vaguely aware of the boat having arrived while he was still ill, and to have been moved to a different bed. The first thing he became aware of was that he had been put in a corner cell and that his sole neighbor was a quite grumpy-looking Sigrun. This made her the first to notice him fully waking up. After yelling for a doctor, she asked him how he was feeling. Reynir answered that he felt better than what turned out to have been a whole week of being ill. Someone came to examine him soon after, and was happy to see that his illness "apparently actually was a worse case of food poisoning than usual". Reynir quickly found out that his condition had sufficiently worried some authority figure that not only their on-board quarantine would last a month, but they were all going to stay an extra month in a quarantine facility in the middle of the ocean as an extra precaution. Damn. He hadn't considered that the threat to get everyone else locked up could be enacted before any of them even set foot in Iceland. While feeling better than during the last few days, Reynir was too tired to keep himself from apologizing to Sigrun for what had happened, and in the process all but straight up tell both her and the doctor examining him about the "deal".  
-Wow. That worked way too well.  
The comment had come from Sigrun. She quickly explained that Mikkel had been suspecting Reynir to be hiding something, and that finding out its nature would probably require catching him in a moment of weakness. The doctor, meanwhile, explained that his father most certainly had nothing to do with the crew's stay on the off-shore facility. That was actually one of the many wrenches Trond and Taru were trying to throw into Reynir's father's plans until they broke down completely. It could be easily justified as an extra security measure, that also happened to please some highly placed people, some of which were part of Trond's "favor network".  
-And that Trond guy seems to find the idea of keeping your guards out of jail by locking them up elsewhere hilarious.  
Sigrun chimed in:  
-Yep, sounds like the old man.

Sigrun, quite ironically, ended up being the first to complain about not being able to leave her quarantine cell. That extra time was also time keeping Lalli and Onni separated from each other at a time at which they needed each other the most. Hildur however ensured to Reynir that she and Bjarni were doing their best to help Onni, while Emil seemed to be doing the same for Lalli. Sometimes, when Sigrun and Mikkel weren't talking to each other or playing games, Reynir thought he could hear Emil speaking Finnish. Or at least trying to do so. This extra quarantine time, fortunately, turned out to be a big factor into tipping the scales. While the police had done their best to freeze as many accounts as possible, money could still be drawn out of one of them as long as it officially went to paying a lawyer. Because it actually wasn't going only to a lawyer, it ran out much faster than it should have, and the hired and bribed portion of the help had bailed out by the time Reynir and his guards were actually allowed to set foot in Iceland again. By that time, nobody's relatives had needed guards and those who had been moved out of their usual homes had gone back to them. Torbjörn, Trond, Taru, Onni and Reynir's family minus his father had still been able to welcome the group back.

Now that Reynir was back, one last thing needed to be settled. While Ólafur, Guðrún, Bjarni and Hildur had all be groomed to either take over a key position in the family business or be a good candidate for an external position from which they could help it in some way, no such thing had ever been prepared for Reynir. Ólafur taking over was good opportunity to change this, if Reynir wanted so. Reynir had never considered this before, and it came as yet an extra decision he needed to make in addition of those involving everything he had found out about himself and his family during the expedition. Ólafur understood, but spelled out that he intended to ask him at least a few more times before giving up, the next one slated to be after Reynir graduated from his mage training.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

An anniversary expedition, organized by someone who had somehow convinced the Nordic Council that the first expedition's tank was much better off in a museum than rusting out in the Silent World. It happening at all depended on the funding it could get from their family business. Ólafur was asking Reynir's opinion as to whether it was a good idea or not. A year ago, Reynir would have suggested not doing it. But now, in all honesty, he was almost considering going back there himself and even wondering if the expedition asking for money had any people in mind for its crew yet. While he was still in the middle of untangling his discovery of the Silent World from his father's attempts to get him killed and later get his guards locked up, enough untangling had happened that he could now see a little of what Tuuri had seen in it. Helping Mikkel and others make sure her work didn't go to waste had contributed a lot to this, as well. He now wondered what would happen if he went back there without the looming cloud of having recently discovered that his father had never cared for him. He also now knew that there were plenty of other Tuuris out there, including in Iceland itself, who would not listen to any injunctions to avoid the Silent World, even from those who had actually been there. The next best thing to do was to let at least some of them go there, in as much relative safety as one could manage. And the fact that there had been an expedition there the previous year meant that people now knew more about what to do and not to do on an outing to the Silent World than before. On the subject of Tuuri, he wouldn't mind giving her gravesite a proper visit, considering the new expedition was meant to go there anyway.

One of the enhancements of the new expedition was an increased number of mages. The organizer had in mind to bring two Finns and two Icelanders to cover as many bases as possible. With Reynir already set to come, Hildur, Onni and Lalli had fitted perfectly in the other spots. Bjarni's mechanics hobby turned out to be relevant to the organizer's initially crazy idea of giving the abandoned tank a new engine and driving it to a harbor rather than trying to transport it with something else. They soon found out that Emil had volunteered for one of the cleanser slots, and that Sigrun and Mikkel had joined as well.

Mikkel had been among the workers renovating the Øresund bridge for a couple of months before his own personality had caught up with him and gotten him fired.  
-It's already looking much better. It turned out that they have been trying to get a real renovation going for a few years, but it wasn't happening because it wasn't being used that much anymore. The fact that we broke it made some higher-ups realize how badly the repairs were needed.  
Reynir remembered when the bridge had broken. It had been a matter of luck that they hadn't all ended up at the bottom of the sea. Come to think of it, it had also taken escaping an outright assassination attempt for Reynir to realize how little his father had cared about him. But also how much other people in his life, as well as a handful of quasi-strangers, did. As much as he had tried to focus on the latter over the past year, the former still stung a lot. Enough that he had been wary of his own classmates for his first few weeks of mage training, and it had taken most of the year to be comfortable around them, then other people who regularly came into the school. He was currently just getting around trusting the townspeople living near the school to not be secretly out to kill him enough to be able to do some quick errands outside of the school's grounds. Class, however, was the only context in which he was currently able to let his guard down on a regular basis. The rest still needed work. But Reynir was certain that this bridge would eventually be repaired in time, as well.


End file.
